We went for our H1Ni vaccines yesterday. It was a long and torturous road to get there. That sounds so dramatic, doesn't it? It is the truth, though. I vascillated back and forth about whether we should get these vaccines or not. If the last few months had not existed for us, this wouldn't even be an issue. I do not see the purpose of getting vaccines for every sickness or medical concern. I give my children their baby vaccines but that is as far as I go. Due to our lifestyle, I didn't see the purpose of getting the vaccine.
Then cancer came into our lives and everything changed. I still didn't think there was a reason to get the vaccines but I was reading someone's blog and read their account of their experience with H1N1. I realized that if my kids contacted this flu, I wouldn't have the emotional strength to deal with it. I was pretty weary in dealing with the last few months, I didn't have the fortitude to deal with even more sickness, especially if the ones being sick were my kids. Also, I didn't want to put my kids through anymore drama. We have been through enough this year. So we decided to get the vaccine.
The flu clinic came to our small town yesterday. I had told the kids the day before what would be happening. Missy immediately stiffened with fear and started to do her little cricket imitation (it's a long story but she does this when she is scared.) I gave her all of the platitudes one gives when they want to stop fear ( or, in our case, the cricket thing.) It wasn't working. I then remembered that our dear friend, Mrs E. was doing the flu clinics this year. The problem was, though, that there were two vaccine teams going out to two different towns each day, so the chances of Mrs E being in our town was 50/50. I asked Missy if she would like Mrs E to give her the needle. I could see the fear start to dissolve from her face. I then told her that we would have to pray for this as Mrs E was one of many nurses who would be at the clinic and we might not get her, but we would give this to prayer. So we prayed.
We stepped into the hall, yesterday, where the clinic was taking place. Oh. my. word! The people! You would have thought it was Bingo day. There were about 60 people ahead of us. As we were waiting for our number, Rocky spied Mrs E at the back. Praise God! But she was one of 4 nurses giving the needles. The chances of her giving us our needles were slim, so I prayed again.
Finally our number came up and we all herded (there were 5 of us, it did feel like a herd) to the place where they were dispensing the needles. We waited for an opening of one of the stations. Mrs. E's station was open, she happened to look up and saw us standing there. Bless that woman! She raised her hands and yelled out "Hi, ___________ family (you can insert our last name in that blank if you know it) ! " She then waved to the number lady, "I can take all of that family." Whew! I have to say that I was relieved to see Mrs E as well. We all unceremoniously received our needles. Mrs E could tell that Missy was a little stressed and she 'booped' (the sound she made when the needle was over. For some reason that 'boop' comforted the kids. Oh, heck, it comforted me as well.) the stress away.
On the way home, we talked about how God had answered our prayers. It was a great life lesson for my kids. We have seen how God has taken care of us in the big life issues and it was equally comforting to see that God is in the little things as well.